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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25003849">Loyalty</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/exitium/pseuds/exitium'>exitium</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Of Knights &amp; Royalty, Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Yakuza, F/M, Minor Character Death, Original Character(s), Original Universe, POV Minor Character, Power Dynamics, Yakuza, couples who kill together stay together, idk how to tag this either im so sorry ao3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 04:46:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,613</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25003849</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/exitium/pseuds/exitium</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Shin and Kaguya are like a tempest; beautiful, but they ruin everything in their path. They don’t give a shit about anything other than what they want and each other.</p><p>There is nothing scarier than that because they have it all. And yet they’re still unsatiated.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ambrosia Adstrum/Sumire Luni, Shin Azami/Kaguya Sakuranomiya</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Of Knights &amp; Royalty</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Loyalty</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Shin Azami belongs to Mes, and Kaguya is mine. They're AU versions of Ambr and Sumire that first started out as a joke and then turned into this hot messヽ༼≖ل͜≖༽ﾉ</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>-ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ-</p><p>He’s nervous. </p><p>    The anxiety eats him alive. Nothing has been said. Unspoken words hang in the air between the figures in the room. The time… Frantically, Renji’s eyes flit around the room, searching for a ticking clock.</p><p>    Bad idea.</p><p>    “Are we keeping you from something?” Kaguya asks softly. Renji jumps. His mouth goes dry, opening to stutter out an answer.</p><p>    The heads of the Azami-Sakuranomiya clan watch him impassively, lying in wait.</p><p>    From where Shin is seated, he practically commands the room to look at him. Lounged carelessly on a weathered, oaken chair, he looks almost <em>bored</em>, like there’s better things to do. His gait, casual and domineering, befits the posture of a king. And to think the previous lord used to sit there… Proper, strict, ruthless. Replaced with a man who puts a whole new spin on <em>menacing. </em></p><p>By his side, standing with her hands neatly pressed on the armrest of the chair, Kaguya’s mouth is set gently. Shin has loosely wrapped an arm around her waist, drawing her close. Renji can’t tell what she’s thinking. </p><p>They stand on elevated ground, just so they’re above the poor subjects who were called into this room with them alone. To make matters worse, Renji is kneeling in front of an empty, low-table. Typically, Kaguya has some heart in her to serve tea. The people who survive their time here often note that the flowering tea is delicious. </p><p>For him, there’s nothing.</p><p>That’s already a bad sign. The smell of incense in the air feels suffocating. <em>There’s no way they could have…</em> No. There’s no way they could have found it out. He licks his lips and straightens his trembling posture.</p><p>    “No, ma’am.” Renji wipes his sweaty palms on his thighs, his legs folded beneath him neatly. The wooden floor has dug into his knees and he’s sure that if he looks later, a deep indent would be found, purple around the dividend. </p><p>He could move. He could. But the way Shin’s hazel-blue eyes pin him down in place makes it feel like a violation of code. He couldn’t run even if he wanted to.</p><p>    “Good,” Shin purrs. It sends a shiver down Renji’s spine. No matter how many times he will salivate his lips, they will always go dry. Shin’s presence is subzero, deadly and unpredictable. The kingpin of the underground, black-hearted behind his charming smiles. Renji is no stranger to what Shin is capable of. He’s seen it firsthand. Violence and manipulation? Dangerous. Now pair that with an unfeeling husk of a man and you have a behemoth of an enemy.</p><p>Being called into the grand room is a game of victory and death; you either win Shin and Kaguya’s favour or you die. There is no middle ground. This must mean Renji has done something wrong. And injustice must be met with justice, that is their creed. So what the hell did they find out?</p><p>Renji has to ask. He realizes that they may have drawn out the silence on purpose, because they know, deep down, that they have him cornered. Two apex predators eyeing down prey, Renji’s back squashed against the wall. He’s trapped. There is no escape.</p><p><em>Fuck</em>. “Excuse me, boss, lady Kaguya, but… If I may. Why exactly was I called here?”</p><p>Kaguya’s smile is eerily kind. “Are we going to act coy now? Please. Spare us the niceties. You know what you’ve done.”</p><p>“What I’ve…” His mind goes blank. <em>No. </em></p><p>“Do you remember,” Shin leans his face into his palm, drawing idly shapes into Kaguya’s back, “when I poured you sake, here. You poured for me, too. As tradition follows, we sipped from each other’s cups.”</p><p>“You were welcomed into this house to serve,” Kaguya murmurs. “After a wonderful feast for the new members.”</p><p>“You pledged,” Shin continues.</p><p>“What did you pledge?” asks Kaguya, her head tilting to the side. Renji feels his blood run cold.</p><p>He can’t say anything. There is no fucking around it now. They found out. The silence stretches, but he’s aware of how heavy his breaths are getting. His heart is pounding so loudly. He can hear it in his ears, shaking him to his core, rattling his bones as he opens his mouth, trying to find the words to say. The <em>right </em>words to say.</p><p>But Shin’s quietly murderous expression shuts him right up. </p><p>“Loyalty,” Shin says in a hollow voice, his chin raising. “You pledged me loyalty. You <em>promised me allegiance. </em>But you’ve lied to us, haven’t you? You’ve lied to me and my Yaya-chan.”</p><p>“You fooled us. While you were running around pretending to follow every beck and call of Shin-chan like you should have done, you were <em>reporting. </em>You let them see into our world and you spat out our secrets to your higher-ups. And you thought we wouldn’t notice,” Kaguya makes a gesture, and one of Shin’s lieutenants melts from the shadows and manifests, approaching Renji’s trembling form. “You’re a spy.”</p><p>    They found out.</p><p>    “Your loyalty is to Ravenswood. You’re a spy of 6 years, and you’re considered one of the hardest workers of your company. The rookies look up to you, they think that it’s cool that your humble background has made you one of the best spies to ever have graced this earth. Tell me,” Shin raises a sly brow, “how do traitors bode there? I assume not very well.”</p><p>    The lieutenant sets down three items. One is a ceramic cup, charming and unassuming. The other is a bottle of sake. The last is white cloth, pristine and clean.</p><p>    “I thought about how to kill you,” Shin says, standing up. His touch never leaves his wife, who draws herself to his side gracefully. She presses her face into his shoulder, but her eyes stay watching Renji. “How to kill a traitor who has so effortlessly seamed his way into our ranks? I thought about slowly boiling you in a large tub, like the lobster we shared over dinner all those days ago. But that’s such a vague memory, and what a strange way to die.”</p><p>    He has no idea how they found out. But then again… This mission was <em>beyond </em>him. Renji bit off more than he could chew. When they briefed him on the Azami-Sakuranomiyas, his company said it was a simple infiltrate and report. They said his false identity was bulletproof, that if he doesn’t make any stupid rookie mistakes, no one would find out. But there was so much more to it than that. Shin and Kaguya are like a tempest; beautiful, but they ruin everything in their path. They don’t give a shit about anything other than what they want and each other.</p><p>There is nothing scarier than that because they have it all. And yet they’re still unsatiated.</p><p>    “I thought about letting you bleed out slowly. I thought about skinning you alive. It needs to be an example, you see. I cannot be so lenient. Not that I ever was going to be,” Shin laughs sweetly, “but you know how it is. So I figured, why not go all the way to the beginning? From the moment we met. Except, instead of pledging loyalty to me, you are pledging control.”</p><p>    “Control,” Renji echoes hollowly. It’s all he can manage. He looks down at the table, at his empty cup.</p><p>    “Yes,” Shin says. “You belong to me. Your life, your motivations, your history- all of that is mine now. Because you are going to die here, do you understand? You are going to die in a room full of people you tried to fool, and you are going to die screaming, because poison demands that the pain it inflicts be felt. I already know how it will happen. I can see it.”</p><p>    Kaguya pulls away from her husband. Renji flinches back when she approaches with a smile, kneeling down on the floor gently and without a sound.</p><p>    “You will pour yourself a moderate amount of sake,” Shin says. </p><p>    Kaguya grabs Renji’s trembling hands, her grip vice. Renji can barely move, fear constricting him, swallowing him whole as she moves his hands for him. Like a puppet. “No,” he chokes out, “<em>no-</em>”</p><p>    Her hands over his force him to pour himself a cup of sake.</p><p>    “And you will bring it to your lips,” Shin continues, “begging for your life.”</p><p>    Kaguya jerks his hands upward. Renji feels his entire body lurch back, but she’s so <em>strong. </em>He realizes, now, in the dread of his stomach that he really is going to die. Lapses of his life flashes before his eyes as the cup keeps coming closer and closer to his mouth; he tries to fight back but Kaguya is <em>bruising </em>his wrists. His girlfriend, his dog, his parents- there’s people he still has to see, things he still has to <em>do. </em>His daughter, all alone. The thought of her makes him go into a frenzy. </p><p>“Please! <em>Please! </em>I’ll give up my job, just let me see her one more time, <em>let me live</em>!”</p><p>“And you take your first sip.”</p><p>“Please, <em>please please please</em>-” His pleads are cut off with the liquid running down his mouth, burning down his throat. He hacks and coughs and struggles, but Kaguya keeps him still, forces him to choke and suffer as it finds its way into his system.</p><p>“And as you die,” Shin says gently, as his wife stands up to be at his side again. “Slowly, painfully, in anguish… You will think about the choices you made. About what loyalty means to you.”</p><p>    <em>It means everything to me, </em>Renji wants to say. But the only thing that comes out of his mouth is a scream.</p>
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